Company
by TheDimensionOfWords
Summary: Garak opens his cloth order from Terra to find two little stowaways. This fic came of the question; would Garak be a cat or dog person?


If there was only one thing that he could claim to know for sure, it would be that bolts of fabric do not have eyes. Or at least, his new cloth freshly imported from Terra didn't. So that led to the conclusion that something besides cloth was in this create, that something was in the back store room with him.

Now Garak was a cautious man, as one had to be to work with in the Order and live to tell the tale. Some might call him paranoid, and all agreed that he was very interested in his own self preservation. So when he saw not one, but two pairs of eyes staring up at him from inside this create, his first reaction was to call for security and retrieve the fazer hidden in his sewing machine. And he was about to do so when a pitiful whine, fallowed by a tiny mew, sounded for the create. His curiosity peeked when the sounds repeated. He carefully walked forward and lifted the lid the rest of the why off. Instead of two assassins he found two small creatures he had never encounter before.

Both seemed quite young and were of different species, though most likely from the same planet in origin. "Terra," he mused a loud as he continued to look them over. The little one had a more rounded, small snout, long whiskers, petite pointed ears, slitted yellow eyes, along with a length tail and body. The other was bigger, its face and snout longer, nose twitching at the end. It's ears where longer and rounded, one lying flat against the side of it's face, the other perked up, it's large brown eyes staring; all this attached to a longer furred, more compact body. The larger ones tongue lolled out of its mouth, while the smaller's tail twitched at the tip.

"Well," he sighed. "What am I going to do with you? Neither of you seem poisonous… My Legate, your starving aren't you?" He could see the out line of the animals' skeletal systems through their skin and fur, and if these animals where anything like humans, they had gone with out food, and most likely water, for far too long. He gently put the lid back on and quickly walked out of his shop and over to the Replimat to replicate one bowl of water, one of Terrain meat, and another of Terrain salad; before hurrying back to his shop.

He carefully reopened the lid after setting the bowls down on the floor a little ways away. "May I pick you up?" he asked the bigger one, before attempting to do so. It gave a slight struggle and a whimper, but soon calmed down when he gave it a pat. He set it down in front of the bowls. It gave the salad a sniff before starting to gulp down the meat. Garak was just about to turn and get the other one when he heard a soft thump and it walked past him, also going for the meat. After some hissing and growling the two of them settled into a compatible silence, broken only by the sound of chewing and the lapping of water.

Garak found himself sitting down and watching them. He really should have been out in the shop in case someone came in, or hemming that dress that was to be picked up tomorrow, but he found himself strangely drawn to these two little creatures.

He smiled to himself, then asked his little guests, "Now what am I going to call you? I believe that Big and Little will do for now." He petted the both of them, making Little admit a purring noise. As it sounded like a happy noise, so he deicide to consider it as such.

"Garak?" the call came for the front of the shop.

"Back here, Doctor," he answered, still petting Little, who kept purring. "And I have company."

"Company? What kind of- oh my," Julian looked down at the scene before him. There was Garak, sitting on the floor petting a kitten, a puppy gulping down food near by. Julian walked further in to the store room and knelt by his Cardassian friend and his "company". "Garak, how did you get them? And when?"

"I found them in a create with my recent Terrain fabric order," Garak moved his other hand to pet the puppy. He then looked over to the Human and asked, "Do you know what they are?"

Julian almost laughed, before remembering that, as a Cardassian, Garak really wouldn't know. "This one" –he pointed at Little, who was rubbing against Garak's hand- "is a kitten, which is what we call a baby cat. And this one" – he gave Big, who had wandered away from the food, a pat- "is a puppy, or a baby dog."

"Ah," Garak said, nodding and looking thoughtful. "Kitten and puppy."

Julian nodded as well, a grin growing of his face, before scooping up the puppy and stroking it. "Well, I could look them over; make sure they are doing alright, then I would be happy to help you find homes for them."

Garak nodded, and picked up Little as he stood. "That would be wonderful, my dear Doctor, though I believe the kitten has already found a home." He smiled, scratching its chin.

Julian chuckled as Big licked his face. "I believe the puppy has, too."


End file.
